StudyBuddies

StudyBuddies is a mobile application designed to connect students and enhance their study experience by facilitating collaboration, communication, and organization. Developed as a group project, StudyBuddies aims to address challenges like academic difficulties and social isolation that many students face during their studies.

Features

• User Profiles: Create a personalized profile and list your classes to find compatible study partners.
• Matchmaking: Discover other students in your courses and connect with them for group study sessions.
• Chat: Communicate seamlessly with other students via the integrated chat feature.
• Event Organization: Plan and manage study events, group meetups, or collaborative sessions.
• Exam Management: Create and track exams to stay on top of your schedule.
• Calendar Integration: Visualize events and exams in a user-friendly calendar interface.

Technologies Used

The application was built using:

• Frontend: Flutter and Dart for a responsive and modern UI.
• Backend: Node.js with TypeScript for scalable and modular APIs.
• Real-Time Communication: Socket.IO for chat and messaging functionality.
• Databases:
  • MariaDB: Manages relational data like user profiles and event schedules.
  • MongoDB: Handles chat messages data.
• Monitoring: Prometheus for metrics gathering and Grafana for visualization.
• Deployment: Microsoft Azure for hosting backend services and Docker for development purpose.

Architecture

The StudyBuddies application follows a client-server architecture, with a modular and scalable design that includes the following components:

1. Frontend

• Framework: Flutter (Dart)
• Handles all user interactions, such as profile creation, event management, and messaging.
• Communicates with the backend APIs via HTTP requests.

2. Backend APIs

The backend is implemented using Node.js and TypeScript and is divided into two key services:

• API Service:
  • Presentation Layer: Handles HTTP requests from the frontend.
  • Domain Layer: Manages business logic (e.g., user authentication, event creation).
  • Data Layer: Connects with the database to store and retrieve data.
• Chat Service: Supports real-time messaging using Socket.IO.

3. Databases

The backend uses a dual-database system:

• MariaDB: Manages relational data (e.g., user profiles, event schedules).
• MongoDB: Handles chat messages data.

4. Real-Time Communication

• Socket.IO enables real-time messaging functionality between users:
  • sendMessage: Send a chat message.
  • receiveMessage: Receive chat messages instantly.

5. Monitoring

• The system uses Prometheus to gather metrics and Grafana for data visualization.
• Exposed metrics (/metrics) help monitor API performance and reliability.

6. Deployment

• The backend APIs are deployed on Microsoft Azure for scalability and availability.

Team Contributions

Team Member	Role	Responsibilities
Paul	Backend, Deployment	Backend APIs, server-side logic, and deployment
Emeric	Backend, Deployment	Database design, backend support, and deployment
Barbora	Frontend	UI/UX design and implementation using Flutter
Nathan	Frontend	Frontend implementation using Flutter

Acknowledgments

We thank our professors and peers for their support and feedback throughout this project. A special thanks to EPITA for providing the resources to bring StudyBuddies to life.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.